A soldering iron system with automatic variable temperature control comprising a hand piece or robot arm including a soldering cartridge having a soldering tip, a coil that generates a magnetic field, and a temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of the soldering tip; a variable power supply for delivering variable power to the coil to heat the soldering tip; a processor including associated circuits for accepting a set temperature input and the sensed temperature of the soldering tip, and providing a control signal to control the variable power supply to deliver a suitable power to the coil to keep the temperature of the soldering tip at a substantially constant level of the set temperature input.

A cartridge for a soldering system that is capable of being powered by a 400 Watt power supply and which includes a pair of sensors to provide precise and rapid control over the temperature of the soldering cartridge tip.

A soldering tool includes an orientation sensor to interrupt power in a non-upright condition and a touch sensor to override the orientation sensor to allow a user to employ the tool in non-upright positions.

A heater cartridge comprises a heater contained within a distal section of housing pipe near a working portion, such as soldering iron tip or a blade for stripping wire. The wall thickness of the housing pipe is generally thin to limit heat transfer to a proximal section of the housing pipe near where a user's hand would be normally located. The wall thickness is thinner in a region near the heater as compared to a region expected to have a high bending moment.

An intelligent soldering handpiece comprising a housing; a solder tip; a heater for heating the solder tip; a processor for receiving an image of a solder joint being soldered by the intelligent soldering handpiece, determining solder joint information, and associating the image of the solder joint with the determined solder joint information to distinguish the determined solder joint information for each respective joint.

A method or process of fabricating a solder cartridge and solder cartridge made according to the process is disclosed. The solder cartridge made according to the process provides a self-temperature regulating solder tip for an inductive current soldering station having improved heater quality and stability with reduced manufacturing costs.

A soldering tool may include a power unit including a controller, a tool body configured to interface with the power unit, and a tip portion operably coupled to the tool body. The tip portion may include a tip that is heated to melt solder by a heating element controlled by the controller. The tip is operably coupled to the heating element via a braze joint. The heating element may be operable at a first temperature range for melting the solder and a second temperature range, higher than the first temperature range, to facilitate forming or braking the braze joint.

A soldering iron system with automatic variable temperature control includes a hand piece or robot arm including a soldering cartridge having a soldering tip, a heating coil and a temperature sensor or impedance measuring device for sensing a temperature or measuring an impedance of the soldering tip; a variable power supply for delivering variable power to the heating coil to heat the soldering tip; a processor including associated circuits for accepting a set temperature input and the sensed temperature of the soldering tip and providing a control signal to control the variable power supply to deliver a suitable power to the heating coil to keep the temperature of the soldering tip at a substantially constant level of the set temperature input.

An intelligent soldering cartridge that includes: a housing; a solder tip; a heater for heating the solder tip; a storage device for storing information about characteristics of the cartridge; a processor for retrieving the information about characteristics of the cartridge, monitoring the power level delivered to the solder tip to detect liquidus occurrence at a solder joint, determining a thickness of an intermetallic compound (IMC) of the solder joint using some of the retrieved information, determining whether the thickness of the IMC is within a predetermined range, and generating an indication signal indicating that a reliable solder joint connection is formed when the thickness of the IMC is within the predetermined range; and an interface for transmitting the indication signal.

A desoldering tool and control system including enhanced features for detecting solder clogging as well as on-delay and sleep mode functions to enhance the life of the desoldering tool components.